A partnership between Nissan and Ecobat Solutions UK will help give used electric vehicle batteries in the UK a second life.
The two companies are working together to investigate how EV batteries, from Nissan Leaf vehicles that are no longer on the road, can be located within the UK salvage network and then be safely recovered, repaired, recycled, or repurposed.
The partnership combines Nissan's battery experience and Ecobat's recycling knowledge to investigate ways of commercializing the process of locating, safely transporting, dismantling, repairing, and repurposing EV batteries for second-life usage. Nissan could also then offer those second-life products to market with the added reassurance of an official manufacturer warranty.
"We are working together with Ecobat to assess how we engage with salvage operators, manage transportation, test, repair, and reuse electric vehicle batteries in order to understand the commercial value chain," said Alan Low, EV battery circular economy manager at Nissan Energy Services. "These are batteries from cars that have been dismantled due to old age or that have been written off by insurers; however, the batteries themselves still have an opportunity to be reused. They still have a useful life ahead of them, so we need to create a sustainable way of recovering them. Nissan takes its obligations seriously and is keen to recover batteries in a good state of health from any Leaf batteries that are no longer required."
Once located, batteries are assessed and recovered to Ecobat's Darlaston base, near Birmingham, using specialist vehicles. Here, further checks are carried out based on Nissan's experience and processes to determine their long-term safety and performance, allowing Nissan to identify suitable second-life applications, including:
- Battery energy storage systems – emergency power backup, power balancing
- Mobile power charging systems
Batteries that don't make the grade will be safely prepared for recycling.
"We provide a specialist offering for battery handling, with highly skilled engineers that are trained to work on high voltage batteries, in full compliance with UK battery regulations," said Tom Seward, EU key accounts director at Ecobat Solutions UK Ltd, said. "This is a critical piece of the EV sustainability picture that has real environmental benefits. We even recover any energy stored in the salvaged battery and use it to provide power to the onsite EV charger network at our site."
